On a Shelf
by zihna
Summary: They keep all their hidden bits on a shelf, shoved off out of the way but still easy to reach, just in case they need their secrets.  Ten things you never knew about the team.  T for language, mostly Callen's, Kensi's, and Sam's.
1. G Callen

A/N: Hi! This is my first foray into this particular fandom, so please, feel free to drop comments and tips and whatever you want, okay? Thanks! I'd love the help!

-Blue

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G. Callen

10. He doesn't really want to know his first name. He's lived all his life without it—it kind of seems unnecessary now, unneeded.

He's perfectly happy being "G. Callen," no matter what Hetty might say about unresolved pasts and old ghosts, because those ghosts (his sister, his beautiful, brave big sister) _hurt _and they can just leave him alone, thanks. It takes him a considerably long time to come to terms with this, but still. He does, and he's happy being G. Callen.

9. He was fourteen when he got shot the first time. It wasn't even his fault—it was a rough neighborhood and he was out too late (he was in his rebellious phase) and there was a gang mugging twenty feet down the street, and like an idiot he shouted and they saw him and they shot him, right down his left arm.

It stung like a _bastard. _

8. He was fourteen when he first got shot, and he will be forty-three when he gets shot the final time.

7. He really, really, really liked Russia. It was his kind of place—dark and mysterious and dirty, a thing that people often underestimated because of its past.

And Gibbs was in Russia and, for the longest time, Callen kind of idolized him, and Russia, Родина-мать, _Rodina-mat, _the Motherland, could have been home, if it weren't for the goddamn Serbians.

One of them shot him too, the _svoloch'._

6. When he arrived at NCIS, he wasn't sure what to expect. Gibbs was NCIS but Gibbs was Gibbs—he was a whole 'nother animal entirely. And he was G. Callen, the ghost, the man who put on masks so easily that he'd forgotten what he looked like, and how the hell was he supposed to work for navy cops?

So he showed up in his typical clothes after a night on a boat, and all of the well-groomed agents looked at him oddly and the lab techs didn't meet his eyes and he was about ready to quit on that first day, fed up with the muttering and the stolen, sneaking glances.

And then he met Henrietta Lange, and the rest, as they say, was history.

5. At first, Sam Hanna pissed him off.

He was loud and domineering and he oozed alpha male. He had that typical SEAL swagger, the pride, and he'd go into long bouts of Arabic cursing when one of the lab techs took too long on a report.

Callen almost quit, those first few months, almost threw in the towel and requested a new partner, even if Hetty shook her head at him like he was killing puppies or something equally unspeakable.

(4.5. He loves puppies.)

And then shit went down and Sam had his back and Callen decided that, just maybe, he'd give the SEAL a chance.

That didn't mean he was going to put up with bossy shit, though. Sam learned this _real _fast.

4. He didn't care for Dom all that much.

This is something he will regret until he is forty-three and a bullet cuts him from life.

He just didn't _know_ Dom, all that well. The younger agent wasn't real keen on getting to know Callen, not like Sam or Kensi, so Callen didn't bother to get to know him.

He wishes that he did, though.

3. Living in his old house scares Callen.

He falls asleep on the floor and dreams of better days and he aches, because he hears laughter and sees sunshine and chases faceless men through the city because he wants to _know_ goddamn it.

After a week of exhausting dreams, he starts sleeping in the office.

Hetty never says anything, and Callen still keeps the house, if only because he can't let go.

2. He makes the mistake of letting his Team (yes, fucking _capitalized, _that's what they meant to him) out of his sight only once, because it's dark and they split and he can't _see _them, and then Hell breaks loose and there are gunshots everywhere.

He lets them out of his sight, and, for the briefest of seconds, he thinks they might be dead.

But then Deeks and Kensi and Sam come bounding out, smiling, and he laughs at them, relieved, shaking.

He's got his eyes on them and he's laughing, and he doesn't hear the _click_ of the gun or see the shadow until it's too late, and there's white heat and then—

1. G. Callen dies smiling.

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You don't have to review if you don't want to, but I'd really, really appreciate it! There will be more to come ~~ 3


	2. Marty Deeks

A/N: Er, so I'm sorry for not updating... I got sidetracked by life?

Um yeah. So thanks for reviewing, people who reviewed! It really made me happy!

:D

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA. It belongs to Shane Brennan.

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Marty Deeks

10. He got all his undercover training in his own home, learned when to be Martin and when to be Marty, and everything in between. He changed faces like other kids changed clothes, shed identities like a snake shed its skin.

People learned to stay away from him. Two-face, they called him. Liar. He was everyone, once, and he liked it, liked the protection of a fake identity, liked the anonymity.

He thought that, if he could wear someone else's face, his parents would love him.

This worked for a long, long time.

And then, when he was eleven, it didn't.

9. He has a scar about as long as his middle finger across his back. He got it when he was eleven, and he never, ever talks about it, or what happened after, which is this; the cops took away his father, the EMTs stitched up his back, there was a court hearing, they put him in foster care, and that's how he grew up, with a scar down his back and a bookbag full of faces, shunted around like a puppy no one wanted.

(8.5. He never tells Callen that they have these two things in common; they both were in foster care, and they both have worn so many masks they've forgotten what their real faces look like.)

8. He hates being a cop. It's messy and violent and back-breaking, and none of the guys like him because he's slippery like oil, he's a wooden boy pretending to be real, he's a ghost and a man with a mask.

Being a cop isn't really his thing. It's tough and he hates it, hates the weight of a gun on his hip, the deaths weighing on his shoulders.

But he doesn't know how to do anything else, so he tucks a gun into the waistband of his jeans and goes to work, day after day.

7. His first official undercover mission was a disaster.

He was Marty Lucci then, a punk, a mafia-connected kid from New York, looking to outdo his drug-dealing daddy.

The mark made him in two days and beat him half to death, and when the LAPD finally came around he was bleeding everywhere, but he had the bastard in cuffs and that was that, he'd _done _it.

He signed up for every op he could after that.

6. He fucking loves the rest of the LAPD. They hate him, of course, can't stand him. He's loud and pushy and unprofessional, but damn he thinks they're great people.

They won't look out for him, but he takes care of them, as best as he can.

5. The NCIS agents scare him shitless. They're _crazy. _He's not exactly the poster boy for good mental health himself but _still_, even he doesn't do things like _that_, especially to people he _likes. _

4. He, contrary to popular belief, adopts _them_, not the other way around. He does it sneakily, cleverly, so well that they think they accepted him, and not that he accepted them. He worms his way into their lives and _cements _himself there, so tight they don't even know that they're tied to him and he to them.

He's rather proud of himself, actually. Fooling G. Callen deserves a goddamn _medal._

3. He's in love with Kensi. It's hard not to be, really. She's pretty and smart and damn she can _shoot_. She's also weird, just like he is, and she _never lets him out of her sight_, bless her, and he's always liked the ones he can never have.

And he doesn't delude himself.

He knows that Kensi will never love him back.

2. He also might be just a bit gay for Sam, which is mildly troublesome, but then again he's never been one for the rules.

Pity they work for the navy. Deeks knows a guy who runs an _excellent _gay bar.

1. He doesn't think about life post-NCIS. There is no post-NCIS, just like pre-NCIS seems to fade away with time.

When that final op comes around, he doesn't think about retiring. He doesn't think about going home. He doesn't think _well fuck this could be _it _man_.

He lives for the op. He's good at it, it's what he does, and NCIS is his home, his family.

Leaving them doesn't even cross his mind, even when he's putting on a gangster's skin and leaving his bulletproof vest behind.

He doesn't think about going home, buying milk and bagels to have breakfast with Kensi and Sam tomorrow.

Marty Deeks runs that op.

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Like I said, you don't have to review if you don't want to, but I'd love it if you did!

-Blue


	3. Kensi Blye

A/N: Oh my gosh, thanks so much for all the feedback, guys! I wanted to post a new chapter just because I'm so grateful! ~~ less than 3

Also, thanks to Izzy McCool, who pointed out that I two #8s for Deeks. Thank you, dear!

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA or its interesting characters.

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Kensi Blye

10. Her earliest memory is of her dad. They're somewhere on some military base in some random, sparsely-populated area and the sun is setting. It's an orange ball of fire on the horizon, shooting red and pink and yellow into the darkening sky.

He's got an arm around her and he's laughing.

"See the way the mountains look, Kens," he says. "Beautiful."

She smiles up at him and hugs him tight. Ten years later, he's dead and she sits and watches the sunset over the mountains, trying to hold onto his memory.

9. She only snuck out once. She was a good girl most of the time, sweet, well-behaved, always listening to her father.

She moved time after time and did it with a smile, but then one time she has _friends _and damn she just needs to _get out_, so she shimmies out the window and goes to the movies.

She only snuck out once, and when she gets back, she expects her dad to be there, ready to yell.

He's not.

8. She buries her father when she's sixteen. The coffin is heavy, all sleek mahogany and red velvet. The officers don't want her to carry it, think it's too big a burden for such a small girl, but she doesn't listen.

She carries her father's coffin all the way to his grave and the wood _burns._

All these years later, she touches her shoulder and still feels the imprint, the mark of the coffin settling on her shoulders.

7. Joining NCIS was probably the easiest thing she's ever done. She walked into the building, right up to Henrietta Lange's desk, smiled, and said "I want a job."

Hetty was so amused that she hired Kensi on the spot.

6. It's only the fact that she's just a little bit in love with Callen that she doesn't shoot him for all the crazy stunts he's pulled.

If he doesn't stop running off on his own and doing stupid shit, though, she's going to shoot him anyway, love be damned.

5. She's not a pack rat. Really, she's not. She doesn't hoard cats or pizza boxes or hamburger wrappers, doesn't paw through her trash desperately looking for things to keep.

Everything she keeps is a little bit of someone else, and she thinks that if she holds onto this little bits of other people, they will never, ever leave her.

(4.5. This, predictably, leads to filching. It's not _stealing_, persay, but she will pinch something off Callen's desk, for example, or from Deeks' apartment or Sam's car. This way she has something of theirs and they will never leave, no, not ever.)

4. She hates Deeks, when he first becomes her partner. He's loud and messy and unprofessional, the antithema of everything NCIS is. And she's still raw and hurting over Dom—eager, energetic, dorky brilliant Dom—so he's an intruder, an unwelcome invader into her life.

She wishes that he'd just _drop dead_, once.

And then she remembers Dom and spends the rest of the day crying.

That night, she breaks into Deeks' apartment and swipes a coffee mug and that's the end of that.

3. She's in love with Deeks. It's not surprising, really. He's cute and smart and funny, and he's weird just like she is, off-the-wall in the way straight-laced guys like Callen and Sam could never be.

She also knows that it'll never happen; she's always fallen for the ones she can't have.

2. She's the youngest one on the team, now that Dom's dead. Nell's younger, sure, but she's not _in _the team, out there, with the guns and the fighting and the death.

Kensi's the youngest, and she never stops to think that she'll be the last one left.

1. She doesn't cry, when Callen dies.

(She doesn't think that yesterday she swiped a little toy eraser from his desk, doesn't feel it burning a hole in her pocket.)

She doesn't cry. Instead, she grabs his coffin and shoulders the weight, and years later, when she's old and gray and withered, she touches her shoulders and feels the imprint of it, heavy on her shoulders, and hopes that she won't have to carry many more.

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Thanks for reading!

-Blue


	4. Sam Hanna

A/N: Wow! Thanks for the alerts, favorites, and reviews! It's great to read all of them, they really brighten my day!

Thank you, Maira Panda, for pointing out my mistake in the last chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA or its characters. They belong to Shane Brennan.

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Sam Hanna

10. When he was a kid, he wanted to be a doctor. He didn't think he was cut out for a cop's life. He was a good kid, smart, shy, almost. He didn't like loud noises and guns weren't all that interesting.

But his dad was a soldier. His dad was a hero, and he went off and fought in a war and he got himself killed, and Sam, the dutiful son, followed in his dad's footsteps and made his ma proud.

He was a good soldier, and then a good agent. But he still dreamed, sometimes, of being Dr. Sam Hanna, M.D.

9. He prefers Arabic to English. It was harder to learn (age factor and all that) but Arabic is _easier_ than English—it's faster, more fluid, more straightforward.

Arabic, much like Sam himself, doesn't bullshit. It says what needs to be said, and then it insults your mother just for kicks.

(8.5. Okay, well the insult-your-mother part is mostly Sam. He can't help it, really.)

8. He didn't resign from the SEALs. He was honorably discharged, because the Navy didn't want to be associated with someone like _him_, after what he did in Somalia.

7. He also didn't want to join NCIS. He was perfectly content to drink himself blind, thank you very much, and wallow in anger and self-pity.

But then a tiny little woman who may or may not control the known universe showed up at his favorite bar and somewhere between the sixth and the eleventh drink, she hired him and he passed out and woke up in the bullpen the next morning.

6. His first impression of Callen is that the man would make an awful SEAL. He's wild and irresponsible and doesn't know how to play teammate to save his scrawny ass.

Four years later, he loves the guy to death, but Callen would still make an awful SEAL, and that doesn't sit quite right with him, not at all.

5. His greatest fear is being left alone. Maybe it's childhood trauma, what with his dad and all, but he wakes up at night panting and sweating and _aching_ and he's got to drive around L.A., to his team's apartments, to check that they're alive and dreaming happily.

He finds them alive, always, and he sits in the dark, watching them protectively.

(4.5. He knows they see him, too, and he's extremely grateful that no one ever talks about it. They all have their neuroses, and they all put up with each other's.)

4. He worries about Deeks, more than he should. Maybe it's because he lost Dom and Mo so soon after each other, but he worries about the cop incessantly, because really the boy has _no _self-control at all—he runs his mouth, sticks his nose into _everything_, and generally paints a great big target on his back that says "shoot me!" He's not even like Callen, who also does all these things but can take care of himself. He just _does_ and doesn't think, and Sam quickly loses count of how many times he saves that floppy blonde head.

Sam thinks that maybe this is what parenthood feels like.

3. He will always, always blame himself for Mo. Logically, he knows it's not his fault. Mo got himself involved with terrorists. Mo made the deal that, ultimately, got him killed.

But Sam killed Mo's father, and if it wasn't for that maybe he'd be alive in Somalia, the leader of his village, or at school somewhere, becoming a doctor or a lawyer or something _more _than a former terrorist, more than a child killed to early, left hanging like a piece of cut beef.

He carries this knowledge to his grave.

2. He lives to be eighty-three.

This is nearly twice as long as Callen, five years longer than Deeks, and two years longer than Kensi. He is alone, the grizzled old veteran that no one visits at the nursing home. He doesn't have any family—he never married, never had kids, and Eric and Nell live too far away now to come and see him often.

He makes it to eighty-three and his heart, weakened, finally gives out in his sleep during the spring. That night, he dreams of Deeks and Kensi, Hetty and Nate.

And Callen smiles big and wide, and offers Sam his hand.

1. Sam Hanna dies smiling.

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Thanks for reading!

-Blue


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